OKLAHOMA CITY — The Oklahoma Turnpike Authority will seek approval to issue $1.5 billion in bonds to pay for construction costs on a years-long turnpike expansion and improvement project.
The OTA also on Tuesday approved a resolution allowing eminent domain to be used to acquire land if negotiations with property owners along a planned turnpike expansion fail to result in settlements.
The board of directors requested that the Council of Bond Oversight approve issuing $1.5 billion in bonds to cover some of the construction costs related to the ACCESS Oklahoma Program. The 15-year-long Advancing and Connecting Communities and Economies Safely plan, which is estimated to cost $8.2 billion, is underway and meant to expand the state’s turnpike system and provide more access to Oklahoma’s interstates and communities.
“I appreciate the approval to allow us to get back into the bond market,” said Joe Echelle, executive director of OTA. “That is how we fund our projects, through the issuance of revenue bonds, and then we pay those off through the collection of tolls. … This next bond issuance should carry us for at least another year of construction.”
OTA has issued two previous bond requests related to ACCESS, one in 2023 for $500 million and another in January 2025 for $1 billion, according to a handout provided at Tuesday’s meeting.
Additional bonds are anticipated to be needed every one to two years to cover the total cost of ACCESS Oklahoma, according to the handout.
The OTA sells bonds to pay for the projects. Increased tolls are used to pay off the bonds.
The Oklahoma Supreme Court validated using bonds for the ACCESS program in 2023, said Jordan Perdue, OTA’s senior financial analyst.
The OTA board also adopted a resolution giving the agency the option to invoke eminent domain with certain landowners along the Turner Turnpike and East-West Corridor in the Norman area, but only if “good faith negotiations” fail, according to the resolution.
The agenda for Tuesday’s meeting listed over 50 land parcels that could be affected in Cleveland, Creek, Lincoln, McClain and Oklahoma counties.
“As we ask this resolution of the board, it does not stop negotiations,” said Todd Gore, the OTA director of right-of-way and utilities. “… We will continue to negotiate and always try to settle with landowners.”
Oklahoma Voice is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Oklahoma Voice maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Janelle Stecklein for questions: info@oklahomavoice.com.